Jean-Jacques Dessalines comes to power after the…
December 1803 CE
In November 1803, three days after the French forces under Rochambeau had surrendered, he causes the execution by drowning of eight hundred French soldiers who had been left behind due to illness when the French army evacuated the island.
He does guarantee the safety of the remaining white civilian population.
However, his statements, such as: "There are still French on the island, and still you considered yourselves free," bespeak a hostile attitude toward the remaining white minority.
Rumors about the white population suggest that they would try to leave the country to convince foreign powers to invade and reintroduce slavery.
Discussions between Dessalines and his advisers openly suggest that the white population should be put to death for the sake of national security.
Whites trying to leave Haiti are prevented from doing so.